Best Of

Ah schrodinger's OSA that is simultaneously trivially easy to get around and dealing a fatal blow to our freedom of speech and tech industry.

The problem for the tech industry is the potential liabilities when Ofcom goes looking for some inevitable failures by the big tech companies. Of course all the non-UK sites won't face these issues. It'll just be the companies Ofcom wants to make an example of. This will almost certainly be bad for the tech industry in the UK.

The worst part is that it doesn't even tackle social media or gambling mechanics in games aimed at kids. Both of these are far, far worse than anything the OSA is trying to prevent. Or the literal paedos in Roblox grooming kids that Roblox are doing nothing to prevent, indeed, they're actively pursuing the paedo catchers in the courts to prevent them exposing how bad it's become.

The OSA has been written by complete tech illiterates in the civil service and the UK is becoming a laughing stock.

The sad thing is there probably are people in Ofcom saying "boss this is nonsense, it flies in the face of all our previous campaigns about protecting personal data, we need better technical solutions first". Unfortunately the government/Ofcom won't wait, and "something must be done" has prevailed as usual. I do not believe that anyone competent actually thinks "this is a good approach". Even if you think age verification is a good idea, which I do have some sympathy for, they way it is being tackled is a pig's breakfast and simply not good enough.

Given what's actually in the act, I don't think that's the case. Or maybe a few low level grunts raised objections and we're ignored. The civil service isn't fit for purpose and this is just another example of why.

Ah schrodinger's OSA that is simultaneously trivially easy to get around and dealing a fatal blow to our freedom of speech and tech industry.

The problem for the tech industry is the potential liabilities when Ofcom goes looking for some inevitable failures by the big tech companies. Of course all the non-UK sites won't face these issues. It'll just be the companies Ofcom wants to make an example of. This will almost certainly be bad for the tech industry in the UK.

The worst part is that it doesn't even tackle social media or gambling mechanics in games aimed at kids. Both of these are far, far worse than anything the OSA is trying to prevent. Or the literal paedos in Roblox grooming kids that Roblox are doing nothing to prevent, indeed, they're actively pursuing the paedo catchers in the courts to prevent them exposing how bad it's become.

The OSA has been written by complete tech illiterates in the civil service and the UK is becoming a laughing stock.

The sad thing is there probably are people in Ofcom saying "boss this is nonsense, it flies in the face of all our previous campaigns about protecting personal data, we need better technical solutions first". Unfortunately the government/Ofcom won't wait, and "something must be done" has prevailed as usual. I do not believe that anyone competent actually thinks "this is a good approach". Even if you think age verification is a good idea, which I do have some sympathy for, they way it is being tackled is a pig's breakfast and simply not good enough.

Jobs that survive the AIpocalypse?

Veterinary ones.

The other day I was musing on the forthcoming robo-apocalypse. While Skynet may well want to exterminate anyone with the tech knowledge to turn it off (perhaps identified by seeing who installs VPNs 😅), it is hard to see why it would bother with off grid subsistence farmers and hunter gatherers in remote places.

My top tip for the youth of today is study foraging not coding.

We don't need more people "foraging" for "wild food" thanks.

There's enough problems with habitat loss without someone picking various rarities because someone on Instagram said they are edible.

Wild edibles are generally extensively available. Of course nobody should ever consume anything they cannot 100% identify given the equally extensive lethal wild plants out there

Lots of things used to be extensively available until they weren't.

It would be difficult to make wild garlic extinct but it would quickly disappear in local woods if enough people picked it.

It’s about proportionality. Some foraged bits and bobs for personal use is fine. Going to the woods to pick huge amounts of say mushrooms to sell to the London restaurant trade much less so.
This year I have made nettle beer (one bag of nettle tops) and have gathered elderberries and blackberries (about 1.5kg) to make the king of hedgerow wines. On both picking sites a fraction of the available was taken.

The other thing is this. We eat the and have domesticated the good stuff already. A lot of foraged stuff (not all) is ok but a bit of an acquired taste.

https://www.ft.com/content/618f07cb-3cd8-42ff-af63-29118d305cbe

UK porn site traffic plunges as age verification rules take effect

Pornhub loses more than 1mn visitors in two weeks after Online Safety Act comes into force

Big win for the OSA. We should see a boost to productivity.

More like big boost for VPN companies, who are all foreign owned. Great for the economies of a number of Eastern European countries.

VPN yada yada. Fact is, there'll be fewer men and boys watching porn because some friction has been introduced into the access protocols. A good thing imo.

Not an easy thing to measure, but if I were to bet on the number of people accessing such sites iths month vs last month, I’d say that the number will be pretty much identical.

Making an activity harder to do leads to fewer people doing it.

Why should viewing porn be an exception to this?

It’s the online equivalent of the Chancellor putting 10p on a pack of cigarettes in the Budget.

If you want that (imperfect) comparison it's like a price hike AND having to produce an "I'm a drug addict" card to complete the purchase.

Anyway, we'll see who's right. There will be a consensus on the matter fairly soon.

We know that VPN's became the most downloaded app in the UK, google searches for VPN's went through the roof and so on. Maybe that's all just so we can read the news that's been redacted?

So what. VPN use rises and this mitigates the impact. Mitigates is not the same as eliminates.

What makes you think all porn users are doing this?

Having been 15 during the age of the internet. Using a VPN is trivially easy. Every male over the age of 11 will have figured it out. The older kids in school will have helped the younger ones install them on their phones, probably charged them a fiver of pocket money to do it too.

Yes, but not everyone is a tech bro wanker at that age.

Have you met any kids lately? It's all Fortnite and Roblox. They've literally been raised by the iPhone and iPad. PB is so far behind the times on this its laughable. It's also interesting that the supporters of the government are making these weak arguments in favour of the OSA and the ignorance about tech literacy among kids is about the same level as the government. I guess you're one of those people that believes deleting emails will save water.

If it is so easy to evade and everyone is evading it via VPN, then why are you so vexed by it.

I reckon it is a significant barrier to many, not least accidental surfers and those of a young age. A six year old googling "bum" will now get to age verification rather than hard core porn. That to me is a win.

Yes, that's more the point, I think. Obviously any teenage lad with a bit of technical nous will likely be able to circumvent the checks, but it will at least help to prevent very young kids from accidentally stumbling across adult material.

I'll ask you the same question, why are young kids being given unsupervised access to internet connected devices? What of parental responsibility?

Oh come, parents need a break and handing over the device is an easy way to get ten minutes of peace.*

*I don’t do this with our two year old, I stick Bob the Builder on…**

**Will Bob and Wendy ever get it on?

You won't see that unless you have a VPN.

Frankly the OSA impact on online porn is nothing. I’m much more upset that by its chilling impact on online discussion on PB where certain topics are verboten. I understand the reasons and support the site owner(s) but it’s a dreadful state of affairs in a country with a reputation for supporting freedom of speech.

Er, we don’t have that reputation any more

We are literally laughed at, online, as the country where you get arrested and jailed for naughty tweets. Laughed at by everyone, worldwide

Yup, the UK is the laughing stock of the world after the OSA dropped. It was already bad but this has increased it 10x, our reputation is destroyed globally. I had a guy from Dubai tell me what they would have done with the perpetrators of the crime that mustn't be discussed and he was dumbfounded that the perpetrators haven't all been strung up, a Muslim chap from Dubai not an expat.

Ah schrodinger's OSA that is simultaneously trivially easy to get around and dealing a fatal blow to our freedom of speech and tech industry.

The problem for the tech industry is the potential liabilities when Ofcom goes looking for some inevitable failures by the big tech companies. Of course all the non-UK sites won't face these issues. It'll just be the companies Ofcom wants to make an example of. This will almost certainly be bad for the tech industry in the UK.

The worst part is that it doesn't even tackle social media or gambling mechanics in games aimed at kids. Both of these are far, far worse than anything the OSA is trying to prevent. Or the literal paedos in Roblox grooming kids that Roblox are doing nothing to prevent, indeed, they're actively pursuing the paedo catchers in the courts to prevent them exposing how bad it's become.

The OSA has been written by complete tech illiterates in the civil service and the UK is becoming a laughing stock.

Sure, it needs improvement, but finally we have a willingness to address the issue, and it is popular.

No it just needs to be junked and we concentrate on parental education schemes and adverts. The internet is like a gigantic burning wildfire and the government has got a watering can and thinks it can put out the flames. The only way to do it is to have a great firewall like China and outlaw VPN usage, like China.

We can and should target companies who abuse their privileged position of selling products and services to children such as games and social media for much tougher restrictions because that's actually feasible and something we can do. Telling game publishers that they can no longer sell mystery boxes or use gambling mechanics is easy, countries around the world are already doing it and succeeding against these unscrupulous game publishers.

Forcing social media companies to open up their doom scrolling algorithms and auditing them to make sure kids aren't being served content that will lead them to commit suicide or engage in self harm etc... is also something we can do. We could feasibly ban social media for under 16s given how much those companies know about us based on likes and engagement. YouTube is about to test a new AI detection to selectively ask for age verification to users who it suspects are under 18. I wouldn't be surprised if it has a very, very good hit rate.

The OSA isn't fit for purpose, there is no amount of tinkering or improving that can make it feasible. You lack the knowledge and understanding just like those civil servants. The reason I go to the doctor when I'm sick is because I lack the knowledge of medicine.